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I stretched and leaned forward. “Maybe we should get some beauty sleep. Today was a long day, and tomorrow could be the same. I don’t want to lose sleep before we’ve even gotten into primary filming.”
It wasn’t true. I wasn’t on the schedule for much tomorrow, but I also didn’t want to go skulking around a sleepy town looking for a hookup like some kind of pathetic loser. Besides, I was here to do a good job. I needed to impress the director. My mother, agent, PR manager, and I were all working hard to transition my reputation from child star to serious adult actor, and being seen in town trolling for a hookup wasn’t the way to sell Nolan Trainor on my professionalism.
“Why do you care so much?” Kix asked.
I blinked at him. “Why do I care about doing a good job on the film?”
“It’s an action movie. You look sexy and blow shit up. Hardly the stuff of legends.”
He wasn’t wrong, but the comment still grated. “I told you why this is important to me.”
He flicked a hand in the air. “Nolan promised you something douchey if you do this. Yeah, I got it.”
“Not something douchey. Lucentio in his big-budget production of Taming of the Shrew.” I waited for a reaction even though he’d already heard me talk about this before.
“Yes, yes. Shakespeare. Guaranteed box office smasher. Oh, wait.”
I sat up in the chair. “Do you have any idea what this kind of historical production could become with Nolan attached to the project?”
“What I know is that Nolan Trainor is crazy. Certifiable. Everyone says so.” Kix shrugged.
“Not everyone. If it were everyone, he wouldn’t be in charge of a big-budget project like this one,” I argued. “Besides, people have said that about lots of great directors. Stanley Kubrick, Kurosawa, Orson Welles. Being unconventional is a good thing.”
I wasn’t sure why I was defending the man so hard. I hadn’t been a fan of Nolan Trainor or his smash-’em-up blockbusters until the possibility of me playing Lucentio had been floated. But now that it had, I was looking at Gold Rats as a very long, involved audition for my bucket list role.
“I don’t even understand why he would want to go from action films to historical dramas,” Kix mused.
“It’s a comedy,” I muttered.
“Whatever. He’s never made anything like a Shakespeare film. Why not make Gold Rats Two instead? I don’t even care how good the acting is. With Crystobell’s face on the ads and this mountain getting blown to bits, it’s going to make truckloads of money. Might as well knock out the sequel right away.”
The opportunity to act in a big-budget Shakespeare remake was a dream come true. It had been worth any amount of bullshit, including being treated like a joke by some of the cast and crew of Gold Rats. Nolan himself had pretty much admitted that he’d only cast me in Gold Rats because my rock climbing fans from years of Cast in Clover were now the target demographic for this film. I was a ticket sales draw, plain and simple.
Which was fine with me. Being an action movie star had never been my goal. But the better Gold Rats did in the box office, the more money we’d all make and the better chances the Taming of the Shrew project had of keeping its green light.
“They’d have to knock out the sequel without me if they moved it ahead of the Shakespeare project,” I said, knowing it was hardly a threat. They’d simply find someone else to play the part of Ladd Masters, small-town police officer and avid rock climber with a heart of gold. Maybe it would be Kix’s big break. But if they did… it would mean the Shakespeare project would be put on hold.
Again.
Kix groaned. “I’m tired of this whole conversation, and I don’t really care. Let’s go sign some tits.”
Now I was annoyed and restless from letting doubts about Nolan’s intentions on the project seep into my thoughts. I stood up and stretched. “You don’t even like boobs.”
“No, but I like seeing you blush when you have to touch ’em. Let’s go fuck some shit up.” He slid his feet into his shoes and pocketed his phone. “Logan tweeted they’d be at that little roadhouse place in fifteen. Let’s go have a few drinks, sign a few cocktail napkins, and blow off a little steam. Once you get back here, you can get your beloved beauty sleep, okay?”
My mom’s voice in my head had the deciding vote, as usual.
“No one ever made good connections from staying at home, Finn. The fans want to see you, and you never know who you might meet along the way.”
I blew out a breath and grabbed my wallet. I wasn’t in the mood to meet anyone tonight. Not only was I tired of the game, but I was tired full stop. But years of media training had prepared me to hide it under a million-dollar smile.
